Do you take team's cohesion into account when betting?

[kryptqnick]

I've just finished watching a TV show "Ted Lasso" which is about a guy coaching an EPL football club without even knowing football. The point is, he focuses not on the strong individual players, but on the team's morale and cohesion for the game. Here's a poster in case you might've seen it but aren't sure:

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After all, football is a team sport, so the team working hard together is not less important than a few very strong players scoring some goals, right?
Those who bet on football matches and do thorough research often look into injured players and stuff like this, but I have a question: do you ever try to assess the integrity of the team itself in any way before placing a bet? Do you think it matters in real life, or is it just a nice fantasy of a TV show?

[Yogee]

...... do you ever try to assess the integrity of the team itself in any way before placing a bet? Do you think it matters in real life, or is it just a nice fantasy of a TV show?

Integrity is such a big word and makes me think a lot of things. Can we just stick to cohesion? It's certainly a factor when you know there are conflicts within the team or when everyone got each other's back. We can take Chelsea at the beginning of the season as an example. There were people who had high hopes that the team would do well and blend together. It started well until results were not favorable anymore leading to some rumors of Lampard falling out with players and some staff.

[madnessteat]

I think that only the coach and the athletes themselves can know for sure about the relationship between the players and the level of team unity. We can only guess thanks to past games and news, but everything can change at any minute, so I think this is a very complicated analysis that can lead to more mistakes and only confuse.

[Quidat]

After all, football is a team sport, so the team working hard together is not less important than a few very strong players scoring some goals, right?
Those who bet on football matches and do thorough research often look into injured players and stuff like this, but I have a question: do you ever try to assess the integrity of the team itself in any way before placing a bet? Do you think it matters in real life, or is it just a nice fantasy of a TV show?

It is much better to have those kind of research or finding out information on a certain team before making any bets rather than on making blind bets.
If you are already experienced into this field then you can eventually spot out that those sentiments are pure guess and speculation into someone
who doesnt have any experience or dont even know on what he's been trying to suggest on.Its still up to you if you do really consider out those
calls and apply it or you would stick out into your own.

[uneng]

Of course it applies to real life, you need to carefully check team's currently statistics before betting. Teams which have only a *star* player and nothing more are just useful to promote the best player's career individually. The strategy for rival teams is very easy on these cases: just neutralize the best player during the match with fierce chasing and the rest of the team won't be able to do anything.
On the other hand, balanced teams which have many average players can offer a harder challenge to rivals. That is because the team's strategy relies on different elements and not only in one super-star player, so it's hard to neutralize such strategies.

As average teams aren't the favorite ones you can make a nice profit by picking the right one at the right match if you read these statistics correctly and of course, if you are lucky.

[Hydrogen]

question: do you ever try to assess the integrity of the team itself in any way before placing a bet? Do you think it matters in real life, or is it just a nice fantasy of a TV show?

I think the NFL (american football) is a good platform for answering this question.

Sometimes the offense of a team will perform perfectly. While their defense performs horribly. The lackluster performance of their support players will negate the outstanding performance of star players.

Outstanding athletes trend towards being the most motivated while lower tier athletes trend towards the opposite. It could be common in many sports for teams with the highest percentage of extremely motivated athletes to be the most successful.

One example of this could be the tampa bay buccaneers winning the superbowl 2020/2021. They may not have been the most talented or popular team. But it did seem as if they wanted it more. They were the most motivated. This type of positive team cohesion could be a major contributing factor behind their victory.

[Vaskiy]

Team integrity is a must with football and all games where the contribution of each and every player is required. In games like cricket even a single person can change the scenario. With football along with integrity, each player are trained to be perfect for specific position. This needs to be considered, because even if a single player does it wrong the plan can't be executed perfect.

Most of the time I look for the forward players, because the ball finally reaches the player passing all other players positioned to pass it. The forward is the one to make the goal. Teams cohesion is important, without which games will be like movies where we knew that the hero's team will be winning the match.

[CarnagexD]

Team work is definitely an integral part in the success of a team, but honestly speaking not a lot of people will take team cohesion and trust into account when betting because it's not something that you can see at face value, most of the time it becomes obvious after a careful game observation and even then it can't be guaranteed you are correct unless you're part of the team itself.

Team integrity is a must with football and all games where the contribution of each and every player is required. In games like cricket even a single person can change the scenario. With football along with integrity, each player are trained to be perfect for specific position. This needs to be considered, because even if a single player does it wrong the plan can't be executed perfect.

Most of the time I look for the forward players, because the ball finally reaches the player passing all other players positioned to pass it. The forward is the one to make the goal. Teams cohesion is important, without which games will be like movies where we knew that the hero's team will be winning the match.

This is interesting, though I think it's pulling the situation to a stretch. However, I'd like to take your opinion in games like basketball where it's really fast-paced, or better yet eSports like League of Legends.

[just_Alice]

There's no denying, cohesion is one of the most important things when it comes to sports teams, but how can you possibly assess it? There's no way you can find that kind of information somewhere on social media. Two people can be best friends and totally understand each other in real life, but even that doesn't mean that they will play cohesively during the game. You can rely on the previous games, but each game isn't quite like the previous one, right? Many things change, go in a different way, depending on the opponent and not just that.

One thing you should probably take into account is who's the coach. I think a proper team coach not only teaches techniques and strategies but also influences the atmosphere in the team. So, based on the trainer, you can probably make draw some conclusions about cohesion, but it's all just in theory.  

[FlightyPouch]

That is hard to analyze as we don't know much about the players and we just depend on what we are seeing on their games. I don't know if this counts but the Wizards had this peculiar endgame against Houston Rockets where Bradley Beal seems to be upset about. I don't know what happened but upon searching some articles it seems he's upset about his teammates disrespecting John Wall.

Then a lot of articles are stating that Beal is angry as he has ever been on his team and they are not doing fine which I think why they really need that smooth relationship.

[LTU_btc]

I think these things matters too. And in main leagues that I follow, I considering these things before making bets. Offcourse, in these leagues which I don't follow so much and watch less games, it's more difficult to know these things.
And in almost every league there is several teams that I avoid to bet on. When I saw your topic, Arsenal and Spurs came to my head first.

[Natalim]

Of course but it's hard to tell if they really have good teamwork, mostly we only based on their record and if they have good record then we can say they are playing well as a team. Maybe if you have an inside information you'll know what's happening and that would help you to choose the right team to bet, but since we are just typical bettors, then we don't have an access on that.

[dothebeats]

You can't really tell the bond between teams and players unless you've been following them closely on the sport for a long time. I'd say it matters since there are decisions in the middle of the game that are crucial for the game's development that only tightly-knit teams can get through without losing morale. They do have their coaches and what not to help them pull through but overall team cohesion sans coach commands IMO is still pretty vital when it comes to major games and team-based sports that I bet on i.e. basketball, football, etc.

[Darker45]

It does matter a lot not just in football but also on all team sports. Team sports is not just about skill. Skill may be important but it will not be the only ingredient for a winning team. Chemistry and respect are two of the most important characteristics of a strong team.

In the NBA, for example, one player may register double doubles or even triple doubles repeatedly, but those stats do not win games. I know many NBA fans here have some idea on who I may be referring to. Triple double is such a nice achievement, but only personally. What use is it if in achieving it you are losing the game?

I have also seen the extreme importance of team cohesion in eSports such as DOTA II.

[maydna]

I think morale and cohesion can be one thing that is necessary on the team that a gambler should think about to select the team. If one team can have good morale and cohesion between the player, they can be a strong team although they are in the undervalued team. The player can learn about the skill, but morale is something that every people should have. If every player can have integrity to the team, it can help the team become strong and play better than the other team. They can play better with the other player as a team and not show personal skills as football is a team sport.

[Silberman]

I've just finished watching a TV show "Ted Lasso" which is about a guy coaching an EPL football club without even knowing football. The point is, he focuses not on the strong individual players, but on the team's morale and cohesion for the game. Here's a poster in case you might've seen it but aren't sure:

After all, football is a team sport, so the team working hard together is not less important than a few very strong players scoring some goals, right?
Those who bet on football matches and do thorough research often look into injured players and stuff like this, but I have a question: do you ever try to assess the integrity of the team itself in any way before placing a bet? Do you think it matters in real life, or is it just a nice fantasy of a TV show?

Without a doubt team cohesion matters, the problem is that it is something difficult to measure, for example in the Euro 2016 Iceland was able to beat England 2 to 1 and advance to the quarterfinals of the tournament with a team that only had a few professionals and the rest were just amateurs, not only that they made it to the World Cup of 2018 and even if they were unable to get out of the group stage they were able to draw with Argentina during that World Cup and they still hold the record for the smallest country to ever qualify to the World Cup.

[Wexnident]

Of course, it's part of the assessment. Studying a team doesn't only involve numbers, it also considers those intangible factors that you can't really put any numbers to describe, but still exists. Everything should be taken into account when you want to study a team, even if it was something as vague as the cohesion of the team. Yes, you won't often see it plainly, but it takes time, after all, so you can't really gather data about it however just keep watching them play as a team, and you'd actually see and notice various points that would probably show you how a team behaves as a "team"

[adzino]

Yeah, it does matter I would say. But it would be hard to know the exact "cohesion" between the team members unless you know them personally or you have been following them for a very long time.
One should actually take that into account along with other factors such as their strength or weakness when playing with other teams. Teams that have better cohesion has better chance of winning

Do you think it matters in real life, or is it just a nice fantasy of a TV show?

It does matter, but what ever you see on a TV shows are bit exaggerated.

[Kasabus]

I think that only the coach and the athletes themselves can know for sure about the relationship between the players and the level of team unity. We can only guess thanks to past games and news, but everything can change at any minute, so I think this is a very complicated analysis that can lead to more mistakes and only confuse.

Exactly, all we know is just what the media has been telling us, it could be accurate or inaccurate information but we can always consider that as a basis when betting on sports. We gamble and our basis is based on rumors and news, so just like gambling, we could win or lose, these news could be right or wrong.

[robelneo]

This not only applies to Football but to all sports that require a team effort, but it's hard to pull up a win if the team does not have strong players within them, each player has a role to play to make the play works, and come out with a win, I'm betting on basketball and I have not seen a champion team without a strong player, great team efforts can deliver a good play but they need good players to implement that play.